Response to Dinner Party Series by Stacy Cardigan Smith

ABC’s Dinner Party Series: Building community by bringing together strangers
By Stacy Cardigan Smith

Breaking bread with others has a long tradition of putting people at ease and facilitating discussion. Perhaps then a series of dinner parties is the perfect way to start a dialogue between strangers about Winnipeg’s downtown.

This was the thinking behind Winnipeg-based artist Kerri-Lynn Reeves’ recent interactive art project entitled the Dinner Party Series. “What community-building is and how a community is built is people coming together,” Reeves said during a recent interview. Reeves brought together strangers in each other’s homes in hopes of creating a discussion about community. Participants were asked to cook and serve up a dinner for up to five guests. Meals were presented in the homeowner’s regular dining tradition - no fancy silverware necessary. “If you’re not into Martha Stewart, don’t do Martha Stewart,” Reeves said. She hoped that such a setting would allow participants to express their true feelings on the subject of Winnipeg’s downtown community, which all the participants either lived or worked in.

Initially, Reeves considered organizing a town hall for community members to express their feelings, but she realized that such a meeting would likely bring out the usual suspects who spout the same old jargon. Instead, Reeves felt dinner parties fostered more intimate conversations where people could not only express their opinions, but also develop them. “Even if there is a disagreement, it almost always seems to be OK,” Reeves said. It’s a lot harder to yell at someone who’s just cooked for you, or with whom you’ve just shared a meal, she further explained.

The Dinner Party Series was part of a series of projects created for the Art Building Community (ABC) symposium. Reeves’ project focused on the downtown area, specifically the Spence neighbourhood where the symposium was held, after a suggestion by ABC organizer Roewan Crowe. Once she came up with the idea, Reeves set about gathering a group of diverse participants from the Spence area. Tracking down eager participants was at times difficult, as was facilitating schedules of busy people.
Participants came from a variety of backgrounds. I was approached to participate because of my work with the University of Winnipeg’s weekly publication the Uniter, and I gladly accepted.

In total six dinner parties were organized and each ended up having an extremely different feel, Reeves said. I attended the first dinner in the series, which Reeves said was one of the most intimate. Prior to arriving, I didn’t know what to expect. I had no idea who I would be dining with, what we would be eating, or where the conversation would lead. The five-person party was in the West End home of a young couple who cooked a macro-biotic dinner. Although Reeves facilitated some of the conversation, it seemed to take on a life of its own. “I took sort of a laid-back approach or an active participant approach…” Reeves explained. “I was there to observe and participate but not guide where the conversation went.”

Our conversation didn’t focus on the area specifically but rather the importance of healthy communities and relationships in general. And it lasted about five hours, until we realized we all had work in the morning.

Other parties varied in size, some with as many as a dozen diners. For the larger parties, hosts took it upon themselves to ask friends to join, Reeves explained. In addition, some of the diners from previous dinners made plans to rendezvous at the next party.
“That was really encouraging to me because it showed that the project was taking on a life of its own.” For a project to become animated on its own accord is a goal Reeves frequently has when creating social art. However, it can also be disappointing when a project does not play out as she intended. For example, the final gathering was a dessert party where all the diners could come together. “I imagined it being a place where everyone could come together and solidify the relationships [that had been formed over the dinners].” Unfortunately, this was not the case, as few diners could attend the wind up.

But this did not mean that the project was not a success. Rather, Reeves viewed it as an educational experience. “The expectations that I set for myself, I think that maybe I need to approach that in a different way,” she said retrospectively. There were other learning experiences as well. A number of more established artists were invited to attend one of the parties by the hosts, which Reeves found slightly daunting. “They were all established artists, so for me to be basically a nobody and say ‘Hey, participate in my art project [was intimidating]’.”

For those that might be slightly confused as to what qualifies the Dinner Parties Series as art, Reeves believes it’s both the context in and intention with which the project was organized. “I’m the artist and I’m the one organizing [the project]… If I was something else, that’s the kind of the realm it would fall under, but I’m approaching it from the socially engaged art realm.” Despite intending to bring together a wide variety of diners, the majority ended up being Caucasian, between the ages of 20 and 40, and from middle to upper class backgrounds. Many were also female. Reeves believes much of this might be a result of the project’s language – dinner parties appeal to a very specific demographic. “Perhaps I would have gathered a more diverse crowd if it was presented in a different way.” Nonetheless, Reeves feels the project was a success and hopes to continue it in some form.

As a participant in the Dinner Party Series, I agree with Reeves. Meeting with other community-minded individuals opened my eyes to different ideas and allowed me to forge relationships that I have no doubt will continue in the future. However, I did notice that most of those in attendance held liberal views and come from similar backgrounds. Although this made for easy conversation, it did not really challenge beliefs and force participants to think outside their own boxes. There are lots of opportunities for Spence area residents to get involved and participate in community projects, and many people do exactly that, by gathering at community BBQs and community centres, for example. Perhaps the next time the Dinner Party Series or another similar project is organized, integration with already established community projects could also be facilitated. This would help to ensure that Dinner Party participants have a better idea of what living and working in the area is like for those who might be less fortunate.